Kiss before crying
by Joy1
Summary: Monday after Dean and Rory's break up... Tristan might actual be the thing that puts them back together.
1. Coffee House

Title: Kiss before crying

Name: Joy 

Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com

Rating: PG

A/N: My first Gilmore Girls fic. 

Life was bizarre at the moment for Rory and Dean. Rory broke Dean's heart by not saying 'I love you' and that was too much pain for him to endure. He had broken Rory's heart by dumping her. All and all not the best reason's for teenagers who were a good couple to break up but they were just the same. Stars Hollow was having a hard time with the break up, starring Dean as the villain of the piece. 

Madeline's party was a welcome distraction and amusing entertainment in a variety of fashions. Most of the class got a kick out of watching the all mighty Tristan follow Summer around like a puppy dog and get dumped in front of a bunch of people. Rory, however, felt sorry for her nemesis. He really liked the girl, she could tell. Finding him in the piano room mournfully caressing the keys but eliciting no sound from them, was a pathetic sight. 

Carefully Rory had tried to make Tristan feel better, by commiserating over their loss of loves. She found him surprisingly respectful and gentle in those moments. Dean had been right; Tristan did like her. His attempt to find out if she was going to get back together with Dean was less about conversation and more about opportunity. For some reason she let him kiss her and she kissed him back, for a second. Then the pain hit. She wanted Dean, not Tristan. She felt like she was betraying her boyfriend although he wasn't hers anymore. Tristan was left in the piano room watching as Rory fled in tears apologizing. 

Monday morning brought its share of oddities. Tristan was sullen and off his mark. He stared at the dark haired beauty most of the day, reliving the felling of their kiss. He kept his old cockiness at bay until he understood what had happened. "Hi Rory," he said coming up to her locker at the end of the day. "Can I drive you home?" 

"I don't know… I'm sorry about last night," Rory said staring into her locker. 

"I was… I was hoping on the way to your house you would tell me what happened," he said gently.

"Uh… Is there a coffee shop near by we could go to?" she asked trying to be polite rather then giving her town more ammunition in her break up with Dean. 

"Sure but why can't I just drive you home?" he asked as they headed to his car.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Forgive the suspicion but one thing Chilton has taught me is anything can be used against you later," Rory said climbing into his car. 

"Alright, you don't trust me. I guess I have that coming," Tristan said as he started the car and headed to the nearest coffeehouse. 

A few minutes into the drive Rory sighed then quietly said, "My town knew Dean and I had broken up by six a.m. the next morning. A guy in a nice car driving me home from school through the middle of town would only add fuel to the fire."

"Oh… That sounds worse then Chilton for gossip," he said holding the door to the coffeehouse for Rory.

"You have no idea. It's like the town broke up, not just Dean and I. My friend Luke owns a diner that we always go to. He wouldn't even serve Dean and put him in a headlock in the street before he entered the diner… Luke is very protective of me," she said as they stood line for coffee. 

After processing the new information, Tristan asked calmly, "So I can…say, take you out…but not pick you up?"

"No… I'm sorry," she said biting her lower lip.

"Why?"

"It's too soon… I didn't realize how bad I was gonna feel about…well, kissing you until it happened. Is this making any sense to you?" Rory asked looking at his confused look.

"Not really."

"Just because we broke you doesn't mean I don't still care about him and maybe wish it were different… I shouldn't have let… I don't know."

"If there were no Dean, would I have a shot here?" Tristan asked stating his intention, sitting down at a near by table once their order was up.

"If there were no Dean, probably not. If you never saw him be sweet and caring to me, you wouldn't have gotten jealous and tried being sweet and caring to me too… That make sense," Rory stated clearly as she sipped on her coffee. 

"So you think if he were never in the picture, I would have never acted nice to you?"

"Pretty much!"

"Oh yea of little faith."

"Biblical references now… then again you were always good at those." Tristan and Rory smiled at each other and chuckled a bit. 

"I like this," he said after a while. 

"What?" she asked finishing the large coffee.

"Talking… I like the volley we get going. Do you mind if we do it more often?"

"As longer as you stop staring at me in class. I have my father's ears and I'm tired of you memorizing them," Rory joked as Tristan choked on his coffee. 

He looked at her deeply for a moment then broken his gaze, "Sure… I don't know what makes you different but I'll take what I can get… So now what? Do I drive you back to the bus stop or do I drive you to the edge of your town?"

"I guess you can drive me to the edge of town and I can walk the rest of the way," she said as they went to his car.

"You're going to an awful lot of trouble to protect the guy that dumped you… I know you said he didn't want to be your boyfriend anymore but… why?" he asked as they drove away.

After a long pause Rory finally spoke. "I… I wouldn't…" she stammered with tears in her eyes.

"That jerk off… I knew that was it… The guy's a pig if he would break up with you for not sleeping with him," Tristan said angrily, although he knew he had done the same thing.

"No… No… that's not it. He told me he loved me and I wouldn't say it back. I wasn't ready… It crushed him," Rory said with tears spilling on to her face. 

"Oh… I…I'm sorry," he said trying to figure out how to make her feel better. For the next while they sat in relative silence as Tristan drove her home. When they arrived where she wanted to be dropped off he grabbed her arm lightly and said, "I would imagine three days of being without you would be enough for any guy to realized he made a big mistake… Why don't you go talk to him? I'll see you at school… I promise I'll be less of a jerk." 

"Thanks Tristan. This was fun," Rory said with her bag over her shoulder. 

She was part of the way down the street before he felt the need to joke with her, "Mary- Good luck!" For the first time being called Mary was a friendly inside joke rather then a slam. Rory smiled big and waved him off. 

Rory walked through town and stopped at the grocery store to see if Dean was there. The brown tossed head of hair was looking down as she approached. He saw the socks and skirt. In shock, he nearly dropped the case of soda he was moving. He looked up briefly to see his love biting her lip; she wanted something. He had given her his heart, what else could she want?

"Hi…" she said as she swallowed.

"…Hi," he said and moved another case of soda. "Do you need help finding something?" Emotions were high for Dean. The town hated him for breaking Rory's heart although she broke his first. He hadn't called or spied or anything. Nothing helped the pain in his chest. Now she was standing in front of him and all he really wanted was to hold her.

"Uh, I was hoping we… we could talk when you got off work… Please," Rory said with tears in her eyes. It was the first time he noticed the pain she was feeling. He caused those tears. 

Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "OK… I get off at five."

Joy brimmed in her eyes and face, "Thank you. I'll be back then…"

"Won't this disrupt your homework schedule?"

Rory gave him a half smile and said, "This is more important."

Dean knew very well that when Rory Gilmore said that a conversation was more important than homework, the homework that would get her into the Harvard, something major was up. His eyes opened and shut slowly in disbelief. " …Uh, yeah… Um… I'll see ya later."


	2. The Talk

Title: Kiss before crying

Name: Joy 

Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com

Rating: PG

Rory headed to her room to change for her conversation with Dean. Feeling more like herself in jeans and a sweatshirt, she called her mom at work, "Mom."

"Hey sweetie. What's up?"

"I'm supposed to talk to Dean tonight," she said biting her lip.

"He asked to talk?"

"No, I did," Rory said, knowing what her mother would do. 

"Wow! I'm coming home right now," Lorelei said as she motioned to her assistant to take over at the desk. 

Exactly what she had been hoping for, Rory still felt the need to say, "Mom, you're at work. You don't have to come home."

"My shy and reserved daughter just went up to her ex-boyfriend and asked to talk to him- I'm coming home. In fact, I'm already in the car driving. What are you planning on talking about?"

"That's the thing- I'm not sure. I don't know how to bridge the conversation."

"Well, Ror what do you want?" Lorelei said as she tried to stay focused on driving and talking her daughter through the teen angst.

"I- I don't know," she said into the receiver.

"Then why did you ask him to talk?" 

"Tristan told me to."

"That was lame… and what does that little weasel have to do with you and Dean," Lorelei said displaying her displeasure.

"Uh… Well…"

"Rory?"

"He got dumped at the party I went to with Lane. We sat and talked about being dumped. He leaned over and kissed me- I fled in tears."

"Why didn't you tell me?" 

"I didn't feel like hearing about it…"

Lorelei pulled into the driveway then entered the house. "Well, I won't give my opinion on that, but you said he told you to talk to Dean," Rory's mom said with hand on hip throwing her coat and phone on the sofa. 

"He took me out for coffee after school. He made it pretty clear that he wanted to date me. I made it pretty clear I wasn't ready to date anyone else. He got all bent out of shape when he thought Dean had dumped me for not sleeping with him, but then caved to talking to Dean when I told him why we broke up," Rory said fidgeting in the chair by the phone. 

"OK, Mr. Mary gets to hear why you broke up, but I don't! Now I'm hurt."

"I just know you'll make a big deal out of it."

"I have been alerted to big deal potential. I'll keep it in check," Lorelei offered, sitting on the sofa. 

"Dean told me that he loved me. When I didn't say it back, he got all upset. That's why we broke up, I wasn't ready to say 'I love you,'" Rory said pulling her knees to her chest. 

"So that's what this is about?" 

"What?"

"Honey, what do you feel for Dean?" she said moved to the edge of the chair her daughter was in. 

"I don't know. I'm sixteen. How am I supposed to know what love is?"

Lorelei stroked Rory's hair, "I knew I was in love with your dad at sixteen. You sure that has nothing to do with this."

"No… I don't know," she said with an upset pout. 

"What do you want things to be like with Dean, honestly?"

"I want things to be the way they were before he said he loved me."

"That can't happen," she stated with the thirty-two years of wisdom she had. "How about dating Dean again and asking him to be patient on the love stuff. He knows about your dad and I. If you connect the dots for him, I'm sure he'd get it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," said Lorelei. "Now what time are you meeting him?"

"At five," responded Rory.

"You better get going." 

Rory grabbed her coat and headed out the door, "Mom?"

"Yeah, honey."

"Thanks," Rory said with her lopsided grin. 

"That's why I'm here."

The walk over to the grocery store was nerve wracking for Rory. She was basically going over to ask Dean out. Her palms were sweating and her stomach was doing summersaults, but she had no idea how nervous Dean was. He had been checking the clock every few minutes since she left. Pricing the same melon four times wasn't a great sign of confidence either. 

He hoped she was coming by to talk about getting back together, but he didn't think he would be that lucky. Dean had been preparing for her to yell at him or tell him she couldn't ever see him again. His worse fear was she would say she was dating someone new and not to bother speaking to her ever again. He saw her coming down the street and he broke out in a cold sweat. Then he noticed she turned around briefly as if she decided not to bother with him. His heart sunk but was soon uplifted as she turned around again in determination. 

Rory entered the store to see Dean staring at her smiling. "I wasn't sure you were actually coming," he said.

"Why would you think that?" she asked.

"Well, you turned around out there… and well, I thought…"

"You saw that, huh?" she said biting her lip.

"Thanks for coming," he said towering over her smiling. "Uh, let me get my coat and we'll go."

"All right," Rory said as she watched him enter the back room and then return.

As the couple exited the grocery store the owner called Miss Patty with the news that the towns favorite couple might be on the mends. 

They walked in companionable silence for a little while before Dean became impatient. He wanted to know if she was going to break his heart again, "Rory, what did you want to talk about?"

She took a deep breath and then twiddled her fingers, "Well, I wanted to sort of explain. It took me a little while to figure out completely…" 

He stared down at her soft hair and just wanted to hold her so badly. Keeping from taking her hand or putting his arm around her was killing him internally. He had brought it on himself but maybe things were changing.

"My parents were our age when they had me… My mom was in love at my age and that's always sort of scared me. I guess I'm just not ready to say the words… I care about you a lot. It's just the words are hard… Does that make sense?" Rory said looking directly into Dean's eyes. He swore his heart stopped for a minute. 

Trying to find his voice he said, "Yeah, but I still don't know what this means for us… Is there an US?"

"I'd like there to be… I guess I wanted to ask you was if you would go out with me again and just be patient. Understand that this is my hang up and not about you," she said.

Dean couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to be back with Rory since an hour after he broke up with her. He dropped a light kiss on her lips and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry… I should have thought about it. It just hurt. I shouldn't have… Of course I'll go out with you again and as for patience, if I can attempt to read your favorite book with several Russian names over and over, I think we'll be fine."

He finally set her back down only to realize Rory was still holding on to him. When she finally let go they kissed a very sweet kiss. Dean's hands framed her face as he touched her cheek. Rory began to cry. "What the matter?" Dean asked wiping away the tears.

"I missed you… And I like your kisses," Rory said avoiding the phrase, 'I wanted to be kissing you the other night.' He smiled at his girlfriend and kissed her gently as he took her hand. "I should tell you…" she began, "Tristan isn't as bad as I thought."

Dean raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "Oh really. How is that?"

"He told me that three days was long enough for any guy to realize they had made a mistake. He also told me to come talk to you," she said as they walked down the street hand in hand.

With the same shocked expression Dean asked, "The accountant? But he likes you? Why would he do that?"

"We sort of established a friend thing after he asked me out a few times. He now knows he's not allowed to stare at me in class anymore," Rory said very proud of herself. "It seems to be more important to him that he stay on my good side then have me hating him."

"OK, I guess I'll have to be nice the next time I see him… Uh, did he… I'm a guy, so I have to ask. Did he try anything?" Dean asked. From the look on her face he knew he didn't want to hear the answer. He took a deep breath as she spoke.

"Well, he kissed me, but I burst into tears… It wasn't you…" she said in a whisper.

The pain in his chest grew for a second and then subsided, "It wasn't me?" They stood close together gazing into each others eyes, "I guess I can live with that." Dean kissed her waiting lips. The kiss was tender and slow. It was a healing kiss. "Uh… Can we go over to Luke's so I can gain admittance back in there? It sucks being the town villain." Rory giggled a bit as they headed over to Luke's. 

Luke saw the couple approaching and asked Rachel to wait on them while he made a phone call. "Lorelei?" he whispered into the phone.

"Yes, who is this?" she asked.

"It's Luke!"

"Why are you whispering?"

"Do you know Rory is out with Dean?"

"Yes, I know. I have been swamped with calls. Go serve them, don't put Dean in a headlock, and be nice!" Lorelei demanded.

"All right!" Luke said in a huff.

A half an hour later Rory Gilmore returned from her outing with her reinstated boyfriend. "Mom," she called.

"Yeah?" Lorelei responded from the couch.

"Did you really throw out all that stuff I gave you?" Rory asked very concerned. 

"If you go into your room for five minutes, I bet I can make it magically appear," Lorelei said with a smile.

"Thanks!"

"No problem baby!" 


End file.
